CA fires won’t deter 150-home development, despite high-risk area

"Following the deadly Esperanza wildfire in Southern California in October 2006, in which five U.S. Forest Service firefighters were killed, a task force recommended tougher zoning and code enforcement to limit development in the mountain forests considered high fire hazard zones. Yet within a year of those recommendations, Riverside County supervisors gave the go-ahead to a 150-home, upscale development in a small mountain community that burned in Esperanza.

A review of campaign finance records by The Desert Sun’s Keith Matheny shows the Orange County-based project developer, his wife or his company contributed a total of more than $12,400 to the campaigns of every Riverside County supervisor and the district attorney. The donations began in December 2008 — one week after the county preliminarily approved the project — and continue into this year."